just a 44 year old man seeking to share my meanderings with the world at large or the blogosphere at small

Monday, February 04, 2008

questioning God

God is Almighty, omnipotent,omnipresent, able to do above and beyond all we ask or think. So surely He can handle and even desire to be questioned??? I look at the book of Job, said to be actually the oldest written book in the Bible. The entire focus of the book is really dealing with this issue. What is God's character?? Can God be questioned??? How do we know what kind of God He is???

God appears in Job, actually speaks to him in fact. Gives job the conversation everyone would so want to have, a face-to-face with God Himself. Be careful what you wish for, reading the encounter job doesn't seem to be like a kid in a candy store gleefully quizzing God about all the answers he wants. Quite to the contrary job is humbled and in complete awe. I think he would have to be a psycho not to be, after all this is GOD he is before. Is job a literal story that actually happened??? Is it a parable of what it means to question God and His character??? Does the Bible serve a purpose that God intended as His Living Word???

Wrestling with God is something i think we all do, whether we acknowledge it or not. It can be active or passive, intentional or subconscious. There just is no way around it, unless you are an atheist and believe God doesn't exist. Still atheists must wrestle with life and the questions it raises. Why are we here??? Where does love come from??? Where does evil come from??? Why is Jesus such a controversial person?? Why do we have imaginations and self-consciousness that animals do not have?? These questions are anything but trivial and however long we have been in existence, gazillion years or billion years, their daunting impact doesn't cease.

The idea of predestination vs freewill circles round and round my brain once again. Man the tons of convos had in Bible College about this topic, the countless articles,sermins,books etc written or spoken about it. The one central area that pulls at me is election. So many with good minds, sincere hearts and honest searching believe that God has elected only a chosen amount to recieve salvation. The criterion for that is bases solely on Gods choosing. No one deserves it, no one can choose it, God in His sovereignty i.e. His absolute power and rule, declares who is elect. To me this takes away from Christ and His purpose, unless it is THROUGH HIM that election occurs. God predestined that every person would be redeemed THROUGH Christ and His sacrifice. He predestined for the Gospel of the Good News of salvation as a free gift for all to be the way to Him, and for us to freely choose to come to Him and accept this free gift. Love is chosen not forced. Just some thoughts that have been roaming around in my head. Ask.seek,knock keep wrestling!!!